Children
by HeyAssButtImBatman
Summary: Five times Robin was good with kids, and one time they realized that he still was one.
1. Chapter 1

The Young Justice team crouched outside of a warehouse on a port in South America, Brazil to be exact. They had been sent to bust up a small child trafficking ring. All of its leaders had been arrested and all other warehouses had been checked, and the team wanted to make sure that there weren't any kids left inside.

They had all gone inside after Superboy had heard several heartbeats in the warehouse. As far as he could tell, they were all kids. The six of them split up, and it was M'gann who found them.

"Over here," she called. The others flocked to her side to see what- or who- she had found. Three small kids, all of them around nine or ten years old, were huddled in a corner. They were dirty, malnourished, and scared. Of the team. Not cool.

"Um, hi?" M'gann said hesitantly. She reached out a hand to one of them but the small boy merely jumped back and began to cry. "Oh no, please don't cry. It's okay, we're the good guys." Nothing she said made them stop, and soon all three of them were cowering in fear. The others tried to gain their trust, with the same result.

Robin cackled as Kaldur failed to get them to stop crying.

"You guys suck at this," he laughed.

"Oh, like you're any good with kids?" Artemis asked sarcastically.

Robin just smirked and approached the frightened children. He made the team step back, as they had been crowding the small people. Instead of talking to them or reaching out, he just sat cross-legged on the floor in front of them. They studied him warily and he looked back with the same level of intensity. The team watched uncomfortably, and Artemis had a smug expression on her face. The smirk quickly dropped when Robin spoke to the kids.

"Você está machucado?" _Are you hurt?_ he asked. The kids shook their heads and Robin smiled at them. "Meu nome é Robin. Esta é a minha equipe. Nós somos super-heróis e nós viemos para ajudá-lo." _My name is Robin. This is my team. We're superheroes and we came to help you._

The rest of the team had no idea what he was saying, but it seemed to have worked as the only girl crawled into his lap and buried her head in his small chest. Robin's smile grew and he looked at the two boys staring at him.

"Eu posso levá-lo para seus pais. Nós não vai te machucar, nós prometemos." _I can take you to your parents. We will not hurt you, we promise._ The older boy nodded and grabbed the hand of the smaller boy. Robin stood up, holding the girl with one hand and the youngest boy's hand with his other one.

"Minha equipe pode ser muito estúpido quando se trata de crianças, mas eles não sabem como trabalhamos." _My team can be very stupid when it comes to kids, but they don't know how we work._

 __

That earned a small laugh out of the older one and the girl said something in return. They continued to talk as they left the warehouse, the rest of the team following behind in slight states of shock.

Inside the bio-ship, M'gann created three more seats and then they were off, soaring to the nearest police station. Robin kept them entertained the whole way, talking and cracking jokes and doing impressions in whatever language they were speaking. It worked, as all three of them were laughing and smiling in return.

"Dude, what language were you speaking?" Wally asked when they were on their way back to Mt. Justice after dropping the kids off at a police station.

"Portuguese," Robin answered with a smirk.

"When did you get so good with kids?" Conner spoke up.

"It would be disappointing if I wasn't, seeing as I'm a kid myself." The rest of the ride was spent in silence as they all though back to how well Robin had handled the situation. Wally leaned over to Artemis.

"I won the bet, so I believe you owe me twenty bucks."


	2. Chapter 2

Conner stared at the small thing in the crib that was currently wailing its head off. He had been searching this level of the lab for any signs of life when he had heard it and come to investigate.

 **Um, guys? I could use a little backup. Like, all of you get down to the last level, now.** He spoke over the mind link M'gann had set up. Less than five minutes later, all of them except Robin was gathered around the crib. None of them had any idea of what to do. It hadn't stopped screaming, and it was getting on their nerves.

"What do we do?" M'gann asked.

"I have no idea," Wally said. "I don't know what to do with a baby."

Artemis reached into the crib and attempted to pick it up. It thrashed around and she almost dropped it. She quickly handed it to M'gann. The Martian tried establishing a mind link, but the baby was too young to understand anything the Martian was telling it.

The baby was passed around to each of them, its discomfort only growing. Just when they thought it would rupture a lung from all the screaming, Robin arrived. His eyes narrowed and he crossed the room quickly. He took one look at the baby and immediately started searching the crib.

"Where have you been?" Kaldur asked.

"There were still a few guards that I had to take care of," Robin answered. He had apparently found what he had been looking for because he straightened up with a smile on his face. Settling down on the floor, he rifled through a large diaper bag and pulled out a few things: A clean diaper, wipes, some sort of mat, and a small bottle of cream.

"Give her here," he said, and Artemis gladly passed the baby into Robin's waiting hands. Robin put her on the mat- "How do you know it's a girl?" "The name Rachel is stitched onto the bag, Kid Idiot"- and proceeded to expertly change the diaper no one else knew was soiled. He ignored her crying until he was done.

When she was clean once more, he held her to his chest and rocked her gently. He pulled out a pacifier from the bag and gave it to her. He also wrapped her in a warm blanket. She soon stopped crying and stared up at Robin with a smile on her face. He walked around the lab basement, singing softly to the baby. To the shock of the team, the baby was soon asleep.

"I don't think she's that hungry, so she shouldn't wake up too soon," he informed his friends. He grabbed Rachel's bag and slung it over his shoulder. Without putting his burden down, he headed to the elevator and pressed the button that would take them to the top of the facility. "Are you guys coming or not?"

The others blinked back to reality and crammed into the elevator. In the corner of the top floor they could see the guards Robin mentioned, tied up together and unconscious. They quickly made it back to where the bio-ship was waiting and were soon headed to Mt. Justice. Robin didn't put Rachel down the entire ride home, holding her in his lap as he stared at the holographic computer in his glove.

When they got back to the mountain, Robin was the first out of the ship. He headed towards the kitchen and filled a mug with water. He put the mug into the microwave and turned back to the bag. The team watched as he prepared something called formula, a powder that he somehow turned into a milk-like liquid. When it was in the bottle, he pulled out the now hot mug and set the bottle inside of it.

After a minute or two, Rachel was awake and the bottle was done. He fed the formula to her, the small smile never leaving his face. She drank it fast, and when she was done he raised her to his shoulder and proceeded to pat her back gently. She burped and Robin smiled wider. He grabbed her bag and headed to the living room, ignoring the curious team trailing behind him.

Spreading out one of Rachel's blankets on the floor, he pulled out several toys and was content to watch her lie on her back and slobber all over them. She grew bored after a while and flipped onto her stomach. She crawled over to Robin and into his lap, where she started to eat his cape.

Laughing, the Boy Wonder pulled out a small cord from his glove and ran it over the drool escaping onto the baby's chin. He pushed the wire back into his glove and started tapping keys.

"What are you doing?" Wally asked, making Robin notice them for the first time. The team was lounged around the living room, watching as the baby now attempted to dislodge something from his utility belt.

"I'm scanning a sample of her DNA so that I can locate her parents," he explained. He let out a small "Ah-ha!" in victory when the faces of two people popped up. "Right, well I have to get her home. Care to give me a lift, Ms. M?"

"Of course," M'gann answered. Robin packed all of the baby stuff back into the bag and the two of them headed to the hangar, leaving behind four confused teammates.

"How did Robin get so good with kids?" Artemis wondered aloud.

"I have no idea," Wally answered, munching on a sandwich. "I didn't even know the dude knew what a kid _was."_

"Regardless of where he learned it, he is quickly becoming our most valuable assets when it comes to children," Kaldur said. Connor nodded in agreement.


	3. Chapter 3

The mission had been simple. Get in, find the hostage, get out. It was just a simple bank robbery, but the police couldn't handle it so the Young Justice team had been called in.

Currently, they were fighting the twenty or so robbers who had decided to rob a bank in the first place. Robin had slipped away and was looking for the hostage. Batman hadn't said who it was, just that he or she was someone important.

The last thug dropped, and the team looked around. All of the men were out cold. Robin had located the hostage and would meet them at the front door. The team filed out of the vault, nursing a few bruises and cuts, when they heard maniacal laughter, familiar laughter.

That was the only warning they received before Robin sprinted past, nearly bowling over his teammates. A small girl clung to his back like a koala, and Robin's cape was fastened around her shoulders. She was shrieking with laughter as the Boy Wonder raced down the hall.

They made their way to the front of the building in time to see Robin crashing into a wall with a cry of pain, thrown by the man in the middle of the room. He was huge, tall and muscular and obviously not just human. They could see the terrified girl fighting to escape his hold as he laughed. The team was about to step in when Robin sprang to his feet and launched himself at the man.

The girl unhooked the cape from her shoulders and ran towards the rest of the team. M'gann stayed with her while Conner, Kaldur, Wally, and Artemis rushed to help Robin.

"Miss M, switch!" Robin shouted. He vaulted over the now enraged robber and landed in a crouch next to the girl. "I got her, go help the others." M'gann nodded and flew off, eyes glowing green. "Are you okay?"

The girl nodded, and flinched when the man finally landed with a thud on the hard floor. The team made their way over to Robin and the girl, whose eyes were filled with unshed tears. "I just want to see my parents!" she wailed, throwing herself into Robin's arms.

"Hey, it's okay. We'll get you to your parents, we promise. But do you think you can be strong like a superhero for a few more minutes?"

"Like a superhero?"

Robin smiled. "Yup. If you can not cry until we reach your parents, I'll give you a tour of the city, superhero style." The girl nodded and quickly wiped away her tears. "That's better. Now, come on, the police are probably freaking out."

He grabbed the girl under her arms and swung her around wildly as they ran to the door, making her and the team laugh. Needless to say, her parents were thrilled at having their daughter back again, and wouldn't stop thanking the teenage heroes. The girl was not so pleased.

"You promised me a hero tour," she said, giving Robin a glare made less scary by the pout on her lips. Robin laughed.

"I guess I did. Is it okay if I take her around the city?" Her parents reluctantly nodded and the girl cheered. She clambered onto Robin's back and he wrapped his left arm around her. With his right, he pulled out his grapple gun and shot it at a building some fifty yards away. Ignoring the gasps from the parents, Robin sped off.

Of course, Kaldur sent M'gann to follow them and prevent any accidents that might've happened, but when she and Robin came back an hour later, she was happy to report that the girl had had the time of her life and Robin had never even touched the ground and it was the most incredible thing she had ever seen and if she hadn't been able to fly she definitely would've learned to travel by grapple gun and-

"Slow down, M'gann," Conner said. The Martian gasped for breath after her little tirade while a certain bird was on the floor laughing at the expression on Wall's face.


	4. Chapter 4

They were undercover, not on a mission but just enjoying the nice day. Robin, Artemis, Wally and M'gann walked through the park, talking and laughing and enjoying their day off. Kaldur was in Atlantis on assignment from Aquaman and Conner was hanging at Mt. Justice, saying that he just didn't want to come.

So, the four of them made their way to a small playground, empty but for a small family. As they passed, Robin noticed something odd in the tree closest to the playground. Looking up, Robin discovered a small child hiding in the branches. He peered down at Robin and Robin gazed back up at him.

"Are you stuck?" Robin asked. His call notified his friends that he had stopped, and they came back to see who he was talking to. The boy nodded shyly down at Robin and the Boy Wonder could see tears staining his cheeks. "Why haven't you called your parents?" The boy balanced on the branch and signed something with his hands. Luckily, Robin was fluent in American Sign Language.

"What did he just do?" Artemis asked.

"He was using sign language. He can't speak, so he couldn't call for help."

"I could get him down," M'gann offered.

"No way," Robin snorted. "We're supposed to be inconspicuous." He glanced at the boy and then let his eyes wander around the tree. He pushed his sunglasses back up his nose and looked back up to the scared boy.

"Okay, I'm going to help you get down. Just do as I tell you and you'll be out of that tree in no time. Alright, put your left foot on that branch below you. No the other branch. Good, not swing your right foot over and put it on the same branch. Perfect."

And in this manner, Robin directed the boy down the tree. At last he reached the lowest branch, but it was still pretty high.

"Jump," Robin called to him. "I'll catch you." The boy hesitated for a moment before letting himself fall. He scraped his arm along the branch as he fell, causing him to gasp in pain. As he had promised, Robin caught the boy. "That's a pretty big scrape. Luckily for you, I always have medical supplies for situations like this."

Silent tears continued to fall as Robin disinfected the cut, wiped away the stream of blood on his arm, and wrapped the whole forearm with gauze. He wiped away the tears and gave the boy a hug, waiting until he had calmed down to let him go.

"Can you give me a smile?" The boy gave a weak grin. "Not what I was hoping for. Maybe this will help." He reached out and grabbed the boy, tickling him in the sides with nimble fingers. He laughed when the boy opened his mouth in silent shriek of laughter, wriggling and squirming underneath Robin's surprisingly strong arms.

By the time he had finished, the poor boy was panting and his shoulders shook with silent giggles. He grinned up at Robin, a real smile this time. Robin smiled back and picked the boy up. He took him over to his parents and explained what had happened, smiling at their thank-you's and returning to his friends.

They were all smiling at what Robin had done for the boy, and the four of them continued with their walk.


	5. Chapter 5

Kaldur stared at the child sleeping in Robin's arms, not able to say anything. When the Boy Wonder had come to Mt. Justice and claimed that he had brought a friend, everyone had assumed that he meant a new computer, or hell, even a dog. They weren't expecting a five year old girl.

"Why have you brought her here?" Kaldur asked. The rest of the team was gathered around him, staring curiously at the girl.

"I couldn't just leave her in the middle of a mob war," he answered. Robin had been patrolling Gotham with Batman and had just returned. "She would have gotten shot. She hasn't woken up yet, so I'm going to take her to the medical bay and check her over."

Holding the girl with one arm and a small pink backpack with the other, Robin headed towards their small hospital, the rest of the team following along. They all knew that Robin was good with kids, but they also knew that kids hated doctors and wanted to see what he would do if she was injured.

Once in the med bay, Robin placed her gently on a bed and started rifling through the shelves. He pulled out a small capsule and crushed it in front of her face, instantly waking her up. She blinked in confusion for a moment before letting out a small gasp. Her eyes widened when she didn't recognize her surroundings and she pulled her knees up to her chest.

"Step back, guys," Robin whispered. "Don't crowd her." He sat on the bed next to the girl and gently poked her arm. She lifted her head and stared at him."My name's Robin and this is my team." The others waved and tried to look less intimidating. "We're not going to hurt you, but I need to see if you have any injuries, okay?"

The girl sniffled once and nodded. Robin smiled and kicked the others out, leaving him, the girl, and Artemis in the room. Artemis helped the girl undress and checked her over for injuries while Robin turned his back.

"She has a cut on her leg and a bruise on her arm, but other than that she seems fine," she reported. Robin examined the cut and determined it infected. He found a packet and ripped it open, revealing a syringe. Another packet produced a needle and thread. Artemis' eyes widened and she looked at Robin like he was crazy.

He shrugged and turned his attention back to the girl. He handed her an ice pack for her arm.

"I need you to do me a favor," he said. "I need you to hold this onto your bruise, okay? It'll help it go away, but only if you don't look away from your bruise. Can you do that for me?" She nodded and held the ice pack to her arm, staring intently at it. While she was busy, Robin washed the blood from her cut and rubbed a numbing cream all over it. When that was finished, he sewed up the long cut.

Then, he numbed her arm. They could both tell that she wanted to look at what was going on, but Robin promised her that if she didn't look away, he'd let her have as many cupcakes as she wanted. That was enough to set her off about how much she loved cupcakes, and while she was distracted he filled the needle with some type of antibiotic and jammed it into her arm. He slapped a band-aid over the small dot of blood welling on her arm, and picked her up off the table.

She looked up at him and Artemis could see how safe she felt with Robin. They walked to the kitchen where M'gann was just finished icing her cupcakes. The girl, Brandy, rushed over to the bar stool and sat patiently until M'gann gave her a cupcake. Robin went and sat next to her.

"Where do you live?" he asked.

"In Gotham," she answered, mouth full of cake. "540 wellington Road, apartment 5C."

"Alright, well do you want to go home?"

Brandy nodded and stuffed another cupcake into her mouth. Artemis couldn't help chuckling and the sight of Brandy's stuffed cheeks, reminding her of the chipmunks she sometimes sees at the park.

When Brandy had eaten her way through five cupcakes (how could her tiny body hold so much sugar?) Robin grabbed her backpack and led her to the hangar. The zeta tubes wouldn't recognise her, and he needed something fast. The rest of the team gathered around to say goodbye, and Brandy waved back shyly from her perch on Robin's shoulder. The Boy Wonder borrowed Sphere and strapped her into it before zooming off into the sky, leaving nothing behind but a few cupcake crumbs and the thrilled laughter of a small girl.


	6. Chapter 6

There was a reason that Robin never slept over at Mt. Justice, but no one knew what it was. As fate would have it, they were about to find out. Wayne Manor was completely empty tonight, and Robin didn't really feel like sleeping in such a big house alone. So, after ensuring that his room was sound proof, even to Conner's sensitive ears, he gathered his things and told the team.

"Wait, you're actually sleeping here tonight?" Wally asked incredulously. The team was lounging around in the living room, watching a movie.

"Yup," Robin answered. He was dressed in his pajamas, a plain black t-shirt and gray sweatpants. The rest of the team was dressed similarly.

"Well, it's about time," Wally continued. "I was beginning to think that you didn't sleep at all."

Around midnight, Robin began to feel tired. He headed to his room, bidding goodnight to his friends and praying that he had a dreamless sleep tonight.

No such luck. As soon as his head hit the pillow, Robin was assaulted with nightmares, mostly about his parents' death. But this time, he was also forced to witness the death of his friends, Batman, Alfred, everyone that he cared about.

"AHHH!" He woke up with a loud scream, heart beating wildly against his chest. He curled up on his side and let the sobs out, lying there for ten minutes before he felt he could move again. Silently, he headed towards the kitchen to get a glass of water. Tears still streamed down his face, and he didn't stop them though they were making his domino mask uncomfortable.

He wasn't aware that everyone else was still awake until he heard a voice.

"Robin?" He froze. Biting his lip against another sob, he turned to find all five of his teammates looking at him with concern in their eyes. "Are you alright?" M'gann asked.

Robin was about to say yes, of course he was alright. He had been trained to hold his emotions in, to not show weakness. But he realized that he wasn't alright. He shook his head and let the tears fall harder. The Martian flew over and enveloped him in a hug, which he gladly returned. She led him to the couch, still holding on tight. The others crowded around, hugging him and rubbing soothing circles on his back.

"What happened?" Artemis asked softly.

Robin sucked in a huge shuddering breath. "I had a nightmare," he admitted, and his voice was smaller and more pain filled than they had ever heard it. The five of them looked at him closely, and noticed for the first time that he was just a _child._ He was thirteen years old, and had already experienced horrors that many people can't even imagine. He was small in this moment, just sitting there, hugging M'gann like she was the only thing keeping him alive.

None of them moved, offering silent comfort to their little brother, the youngest and maybe even strongest of them all. None of them asked what the nightmare was about, none of them wanted to know. But none of them moved away or unwrapped their arms from the small boy.

Eventually they realized that he was asleep once more, head resting against Wally's chest. Connor gently lifted him up and carried him to his room, tucking him into bed. He wanted to remove the mask, but knew that Robin's identity was one of his most guarded secrets. He settled for covering his eyes and pulling the mask off.

He made his way back to the living room, where the team was sitting in the exact same spot as before.

"Now we know why he never sleeps over here," Kaldur said.

Artemis looked up sharply. "You think this happens every night?"

"It would explain why his room is completely sound proof," Connor offered, and he watched as sadness for their bird bloomed into all of their eyes. That night, they realized that Robin was the most resilient child they had ever known, to go through all that he had and still keep going, laughing the whole way. But that night they realized something else.

No matter how mature he seemed, no matter how well he hid it, he was still a child. A strong, smart, dangerous child, but a child nonetheless.


End file.
